Taylor Swift and Brendon Urie open Billboard Music Awards with colourful performance of 'ME!'
Performance marked the live debut of the pop star's new single, which is the first to be released from her forthcoming seventh album
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Taylor Swift and Brendon Urie opened the Billboard Music Awards with a burst of colour on Wednesday night, where they performed the live debut of Swift's song "ME!".
The ceremony took place in Las Vegas and was attended by some of the biggest names in the music world, including Paula Abdul who also performed, and with whom Swift and her cats Olivia and Meredith took a picture on the red carpet.
After being introduced by a marching band, Swift appeared onstage in a rainbow sequinned dress for the song's intro, after which she was joined by Panic! at the Disco frontman Urie, who flew down via an umbrella.
The official video for "ME!", which was released last week, recently broke a number of streaming records including the biggest ever 24-hour YouTube debut for a solo or female artist.
Swift's video achieved a record-breaking 65.2m views within the first 24 hours of its release. This makes Swift the solo and female artist with the biggest 24-hour debut on YouTube to date.
It also marks the biggest 24-hour debut of her career, followed by the 43.2m views achieved by her “Look What You Made Me Do” video. “ME!” also received more likes in its first day than any of Swift's earlier music video releases.
Her numbers bested Ariana Grande’s previous record of 55m views for “Thank U, Next”. She also boasts the second-biggest 24-hour debut overall, with K-pop group BTS in first place for their “Boy With Love” video, featuring Halsey.
Swift is expected to announce the release of her seventh album later this year.
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